Put A "Ding in the Universe" a la Steve Jobs

"I want to put a ding in the universe," Steve Jobs used to say.

A ding is a dent, like you might get in your car when you bang it. It's shape-changing, and that's what Jobs wanted to do, change the shape of the universe, make his mark, leave a legacy. And that's what he did.

Do you want to leave a mark on the universe? Like Steve Jobs? Or Warren Buffett? Zakir Hussain? Well, you absolutely can. Because all of these guys and most people who are great successes have a few things in common - no, it's not great talent and great luck.

It's things that you can adopt into your life to catapult yourself into that same universe-shaping success. Figuring out these 5 things can get you chasing after big dreams. You can achieve anything - and don't let anybody ever tell you otherwise.

Source: Thetaxhaven / CC 2.0

Know What You're Made Of
When you know what you are - where your strengths lie, and what weaknesses you must overcome, you know where to focus your energy. In his classic essay Managing Oneself, Peter Drucker, the management guru, tells us to ignore our weaknesses and keep improving your strengths:

In identifying opportunities for improvement, don't waste time cultivating skill areas where you have little competence. Instead, concentrate on - and build on - your strengths.

So spend a little time building self-awareness. Get in tune with yourself to see how you feel when you are working on something. Some tasks will make you feel energized, some projects will make you want to jump out of bed to get to work, some problems will get your creative juices flowing. These are areas of your strength - and where you can make the most impact.

I have had several jobs since I first entered the workforce. My main area of focus wan nonprofit management, and I worked with several organisations as a program manager. I loved what I did but I found that when I was writing, reports mostly but anything, really, I was truly enjoying myself. I had thought I wanted to be a program manager, that my education had prepared me for that and if I abandoned that I was wasting everything I had worked for. But I finally admitted that perhaps I was in the wrong place - and I am now working on the area where my strength lies - writing.

It's not about what you should be doing. You think you should be an accountant because that's what you studied or have chalked up experience in... but if it's computer programming that really gets your blood flowing then do that. You might become a good accountant - but you could become a great programmer.

Have Supreme Confidence in Yourself
When Steve Jobs was 12 years old he decided that he wanted to make a frequency counter (whatever that is). So he tracked down Hewlett (of Hewlett Packard/HP) for the parts. Think about the confidence it takes to go straight to the source, to go to whatever lengths it takes, to get what you want, and to believe in yourself enough to go to that length.

When I was studying International Relations as an undergraduate student I was reading Shashi Tharoor's book. I had some questions for him, I was very interested in India's foreign policies. I dug out an email address and sent him what I can only say in hindsight was a tentative email. Receiving no response, I shrugged and moved on.

I doubt Jobs got a response to his first attempt or second or third. But I'm pretty sure he never shrugs and moves on. You need to have supreme confidence in yourself and your abilities. You deserve an answer from Hewlett, and Tharoor, and anyone else.

One 12-year old boy believed in himself that much and look where it got him. Believe in yourself and you will make your mark as well.

Surround Yourself with Awesome People
My boss recently told me about a book he was reading where the author said that even gifted athletes need a coach - so why do you think that you do not?

Any person who has had a good mentor can tell you what impact it can make on your life. And any person who achieved great things will tell you they had a mentor to guide and inspire them.

Surround yourself with people you admire and can learn from, who have traversed the path you want to travel, who have conquered peaks you hope you climb.

It doesn't have to be related to your job. Anyone that inspires you, that makes you feel like you can achieve great things, that believes in themselves and in you can be a mentor. Ideally it should be someone who intimidates you a little - someone who seems wise, seems to know what he's doing, seems like he's got a few trophies tucked away.

If you're wondering where you can find one, don't worry. Nowadays, luckily, the world is small enough that no one is too far to reach. If you have a LinkedIn profile and a little bit of confidence you can easily jump over a few degrees of separation and reach out to the person you want to learn from.

People love to give advice. Knowing this makes it easier to approach someone - you're giving them an ego boost too, a chance to share their wisdom. A mentor can get as much out of a mentor-mentee relationship as a mentee.

You might not strike gold the first time set out to find a mentor - you might find someone apathetic, or too insecure to share their ideas, or too arrogant to see potential in you. But just keep looking because a great mentor is an amazing resource on the path to great achievement.

Work More Than You Imagined You Ever Could
Sometimes we get so caught up in the glamour of success that we forget that successful people work like crazy. They work hard, they work for hours on end, they work all night, they work for years!

In the book Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, the author looks at the work habits of over 150 of the greatest writers, artists and scientists that ever lived. And what did he find? That they all worked relentlessly hard, of course.

"Sooner or later," writer VS Pritchett writes, "the great men turn out to be all alike. They never stop working. They never lose a minute. It is very depressing."

It just takes away all excuse, doesn't it? They were successful because they were extraordinarily talented, that they had higher IQs, that they were just lucky, had better resources... none of that matters when you learn that they worked relentlessly to achieve the things they have achieved.

I guess the answer for us is the same, to buckle down and get 10,000 hours of practice under our belt to achieve mastery.

Do Crazy Things
To do incredible things, you need to do crazy things. "Because,"as Steve Jobs said, "the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do."

Get ready to make incredible mistakes, to be laughed at, to be shunned even. You need to take some scary, over-the-top risks - for the sake of your passions.

And you have to do this knowing that all the crazy things you try will fail, and it will hurt, and tears will sting your eyes and shame will sting your egos.

And then one day, it will just work. Your insane risk will bring a proportionately insane reward. And your awesome mistake will change the universe.

So gather up every ounce of courage - tap your experiences for it, glean it from books, borrow it from those around you - and then chase after that failure. Chase after those big mistakes, because beyond the big failures lies that life-changing success.

Whatever your universe may be - your self, your family, your community, your country... your world. You can shape that universe, bend it to your will, and achieve greatness. So, go out there, arm yourself with the above tools, and start your hammering away.

Do you have any big dreams you're chasing after? Dreams that will change your universe? Tell us about them so we may become part of your journey...